DAIRY
APPLICATION NOTE 2.05.01
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WHEY PROTEIN AND LACTOSE
Typical end products
Whey protein concentrate (WPC), whey powder, lactose, casein
Chemical curve: R.I. per BRIX at Ref. Temp. of 20˚C
Introduction
Whey is a liquid residue of cheese and casein
production, which contains large amounts of food
protein. Whey comprises 80-90 % of the total volume
of milk entering the process. It also contains about
50 % of the nutrients of the milk: protein, lactose,
vitamins and minerals. Whey protein concentrate
(WPC) is processed by ultrafiltration (UF). Also,
WHEY SEPARATION PROCESS
reverse osmosis (RO) or diafiltration are used. UF is
the most widely used process of membrane filtration
(fractionation) in the dairy industry. The principle of
these processes is that a membrane restricts the
passage of particles over a certain size. For
example, in UF large particles like fats and proteins
are retained (retentate), while small particles, like
salts and sugars, pass through the membrane
(permeate).
Application
Whey must be processed as soon as it is collected to
reduce bacterial activity. The process requires the
following unit operations: fines and fat separation;
ultrafiltration, where whey protein (retentate) and
lactose (permeate) are separated; concentration by
evaporation; spray drying for obtaining whey powder
and bagging. Lactose goes through evaporation,
crystallization, crystal separation, fluid bed drying
and finally bagging.
Whey protein concentrate (WPC) is a powder, which
contains 35-85% protein in dry matter. It is processed
 DAIRY
APPLICATION NOTE 2.05.01
WHEY SEPARATION PROCESS

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by concentrating and drying the whey retentate. To
obtain more than 80% protein concentration, it is
necessary to diafilter, add water to the UF feed to
wash out low molecular components, to remove
more lactose and to raise the protein concentration in
relation to total dry matter.
Lactose is the main constituent of whey and there
are two basic methods of lactose recovery. They are
the crystallization of untreated but concentrated
whey or the crystallization of whey, which the protein
has been removed from by UF. After UF, the whey is
first concentrated to 60-62 % dry matter via
evaporation, and then it is transferred to
crystallization tanks, where seed crystals are added
to it. After crystallization, the crystals are separated
by centrifuges and dried into powder in fluid bed
driers. Before packing the lactose is also ground and
sifted.
Instrumentation and Installation
In both, the whey and lactose processing
applications, the K-Patents Sanitary Refractometer
PR-23-AC is used to control the correct feed product
concentration for the following process step.
Typically, the K-Patents’ PR-23-AC sensor is installed
on a pipe bend. It is angle mounted on the outer
radius of the pipe bend directly or by using a flow
cell. This way the best flow conditions and self-
cleaning effect can be achieved.
The refractometer helps to control and adjust
concentration levels after the ultrafiltration, and at the
evaporator inlet. The concentration measurement
from the evaporation process outlet assists in
optimizing the evaporator energy consumption. It
also ensures the correct feed product concentration
to the spray dryer or crystallizer.
If an instrument is used in the RO process, it has to
be mounted outside the loop, due to the high process
pressure of about 40 bar.
Typically, prism wash is not required for any of these
applications, since the plants are CIP cleaned every
10-20 hours. Typical process temperature for whey
application is 10-70°C (50-158°F) and the
measurements vary between 0 and 85 Brix.
The high accuracy control achieved with K-Patents
precise in-line concentration measurements helps to
improve end product quality and to reduce operating
costs. Additionally the K-Patents PR-23-AC has a
built-in web server that can be accessed via
Ethernet, which significantly improves its ease-of-
use. Obtaining real-time measurement data displays
and diagnostics, altering instrument configuration
settings or updating program versions can all be
done remotely.

Instrumentation Description
K-Patents Sanitary Compact Refractometer PR-23-AC for small pipe line sizes of
2.5 inch and smaller.

The PR-23-AC sensor is installed in the pipe bend. It is angle mounted on the
outer corner of the pipe bend directly, or by a flow cell using a 3A Sanitary clamp
or Varivent® connection.

Measurement range: Refractive Index (nD) 1.3200 – 1.5300, corresponding to 0-100 Brix.